The Rough Guide to Americana

Compiled by rock writer and musician Sylvie Simmons, this second edition of TheRough Guide to Americana is a pleasing hodgepodge of songs by a panorama of artists from the US (plus Londoner Sean Taylor). The album's 14 tracks were chosen because they represent a modern interpretation of ‘the themes, sounds or qualities of old country,’ meaning the good ol’ American music prior to its devolution into the effluvia dominating the contemporary domestic radio broadcast and retail markets. That criteria allows for widely divergent gems, such as Robert Earl Keen's bluegrassy rendition of Richard Thompson's anthem to juvenile delinquency, ‘52 Vincent Black Lightning’; Patty Griffin's ‘Wild Old Dog’, which is about a metaphysical encounter with a furry four-legged God; and Taylor's ‘Tienes Mi Alma en Tus Manos’, a groovy, sultry, unabashedly romantic ode to the irrational allure of love. The indisputable highlight is Malcolm Holcombe's ‘Words of December’, a mournfully sombre lament culled from the 2014 album Pitiful Blues. If anyone embodies the throwback qualities Simmons was striving to capture it's the gravel-voiced troubadour from the North Carolina hills about whom Steve Earle once remarked, “Malcolm Holcombe is the best songwriter I ever threw out of my recording studio.”